Detective Fiction Book Reviews

Creating an engaging and unique PI is far from an easy job for an author, but in The Case of the Blonde with the Bad Nose Job by Carlo Armenise, this genre niche gets a fresh new face with an attitude that’s hard not to love. Sam Razor is a hard-nosed private detective with something to prove, and this first case of his is a sparkling and sharply written tale that should earn this author plenty of new fans.

When Margaret, a wealthy debutante with a banged-up nose and a worried sister, is kidnapped, there are plenty of potential suspects […]

Swollen Identityby Rich Leder is the second book in the electric McCall & Company series about Kate McCall, who’s inherited a PI company from her murdered father, and reluctantly takes the reins. Moonlighting as a way-off Broadway actress starring in a series of absurd musicals, Book 2 finds socialite Brooke Barrington walking into her living room, who claims to have had her identity stolen, as well as stealing a kiss…

This leads to a complex, but still breezingly entertaining case, where Kate has to contend with Brooke’s deranged twin sister Bailey, who wants to murder her sister and who’s […]

Emboozlement is Rich Leder’s third novel in the excellent McCall & Company series. Kate McCall, an off-off Broadway actress has inherited her dad’s private investigator business, and now finds herself embroiled in a possible embezzlement scheme at a popular sports bar run by a former Major Leaguer, while somebody is murdering lawyers – who may just be her father’s killer – and somebody is letting her know about the murders ahead of time.

Meanwhile, Kate might be falling for the ballplayer, and also meanwhile he might just the one committing the embezzlement. As always, Leder provides a uniquely entertaining page-turner […]